Act 11: Josh's Final Words and Goodbyes

The human takes in a breath, a big one, before letting loose the lesson. "Let's talk about types, there are 18 of them and they are: Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Ground, Rock, Bug, Ghost, Steel, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Psychic, Ice, Dragon, Dark and Fairy. Every pokemon has either a type or two, the possible type combinations are on triple digits. Now this brings us to our next point..." 
Fairy type? Is that a thing? Shia and spark never heard of it.

"That's a little odd, but okay." Khaun remarks.
"So which of those are our four packies here?" Eilumi asks.
"I can answer that." Loona says. "I'm a 'normal' type. Veera, Spark, and Shia are all electric types."
"Ahh, I see!" Eilumi says. "Hmmm, I wonder if we could use that to power the ship..."
When everyone looks at him, he chuckles. 
"I'm kidding, I am kidding! That would likely be horribly inefficient, especially as a constant power source."
"Might be something to consider in a pinch, though." Khaun rubs his chin thoughtfully.

"Loona is correct. Meanwhile Luca was an example of a pokemon with two types, Steel and Fighting." Josh stated. "Now our next point is type effectiveness. All pokemon moves have a single type to them, this is important for two reasons: Pokemon with the same type as their moves are able to get more out of said moves. And then there is type effectiveness, some types are better against other types, Water beats Fire, Electric beats Water And Dragon always...ALWAYS loses to Fairy."

"That last part... doesn't make sense." Eilumi comments. The rest say nothing.

"Why?" He is not asking because he thinks Eilumi is questioning him, he is just afraid that he might have not explained very well. "What part exactly does not make sense?"

"How do dragons lose to fairies?" Eilumi asks. "Packs of Avalis with spears, yes, but fairies?"

"Those two types can be considered more 'detached' from the others, specifically Dragon, A Dragon can fight a Dragon, but Dragon can beat Fire, Water, Electric and Grass. Maybe a steel type would be able to muster some resistance against it but it's not particularly the very best thing to use against a Dragon type. What is effective against Dragon however is Ice and Fairy type. Now has for how exactly a Fairy beats a Dragon...Dragons just can not do anything to the Fairy type, and the Fairy type can do everything to a Dragon Type." He explained...or made an attempt to at least. "I don't got a much more deep explanation that would be...logical sounding, it's like these two have some magic to them. But if you are wondering what exactly who happen in a fight between the the two, the dragon's attacks would have no effect while the Fairy would just be able to suck it's energy dry with kisses and breaks scales by just playing rough."

"Ermmmm okay. That's still a bit weird, but moving on." Eilumi scratches his ears.

The human continues on, moving to another topic. "Alright so the next aspect about Pokemon are abilities. Every species of Pokémon have a trait or two, individually a Pokemon can either have one or the other though." 
"Abilities..." Veera thinks on that for a moment before. "Do you know what ability i might have then?" She never really saw it in action.
"Well, i think we can find that out right now." He crosses his arms. "So tell me Veera, as an Eevee, were you good at sensing danger? and i don't mean from experience, i meant were you good at it for as long as you can remember?" 
She shakes her head to that. "No really...i have a feeling that if that were the case things might have turned out much better for us..." 
"Then you can run on electricity." 
She blinks. "Huh?" 
"No i don't mean the literal sense of run i'm just saying that getting electricity is good for you."

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow either." Khaun adds in.

"Right." Now how can he makes this description more understandable? "Let's see that if...Spark electrocuted you right now you would feel vitalized." He decided to mention Spark in this because other wise it would have to be Shia, and he doesn't want to make any implications on accident. 
The Pikachu looks to the Jolteon. "So does this mean i can't hurt her?" 
"Not with electricity, no, it will do the opposite of hurting her."

"Oh... I see." Khaun reples.

"When it comes to the basics of what makes a pokemon that is it." So that's that Topic closed, but Joshua has another. "Now for a more information on the combat potential of pokemon, there are some moves that are capable of causing afflictions on those that are hit. I'm talking about Paralysis, Burn, Sleep, Poison and Frozen...and this is just the non-volatile variety."

"Volatile? You mean, it can cause them to explode?" Eilumi asks.

"No no no." He shakes his head. "in the context i'm describing it doesn't have anything to do with pokemon exploding, although some can do that at will. The volatile category talks about about a variety of conditions that may come and go quickly. Confusion is one of those, when that happens the pokemon can hurt itself by accident."

"Oh. I see." Eliumi sighs with relief. "Well, that previous list sounds pretty self-explanatory..."

"The Volatile list is wide and varied, it covers effects such as pokemon shrinking to a smaller size or putting powerful barriers to protect themselves."

"... I see." Khaun says with a thoughtful hand on his chin.

Now for the next topics of discussion he is about to give them. "Now the moves, every pokemon can learn a set of moves through their lives, though not all pokemon can use all moves. They are either learned naturally or with the use of a colored disc-shaped Technical Machine."

"Technical Machine? I've never heard of them." Loona remarks. "Does anyone else have any idea what he's talking about?" She asks the rest of the mons.

All the other pokémon just shake their heads, they don't really know what he is talking about either it seems. 
"No one?" Not that he is disappointed in them, just curious about what this really means, is the thing he just mentioned non-existent here? "Okay, the next topic we are going to talk about distances itself from the pokemons, it's about the local flora. Berries, there are a few kind of berries that you can find in the wild in that planet, they have other practical applications other than just being edible though."

"Such as?" Khaun asks curiously. Being the medic/biologist of the group this seems to be of particular interest to him.

"One in particular has medicinal applications for physical trauma, the others can cure poison, paralysis, burn and sleepness."

"Hmmm, interesting, anything of particular note?" KHaun asks. Most of this stuff seems like it can be replicated by their own technology and medicine. interesting to know their effects none the less.

"Well besides those berries there apples and bananas, fruits that are just edible. And although rare it is said that there exists apples and bananas that shine and look like they are made of pure gold, it is said that they taste just as well as they are worth."

"Well we're familiar with Apples and... ugh... bananas." Eilumi comments. The other two kind of gag at the word "banana". Apparently it does not bring back good memories for the crew.

He looks to Eilumi. "Apples and bananas exist in other planets too?"

"Yes, in fact the're quite common." Eilumi replies back. "The latter especially, since, well, Miniknog. Apex and their damn bananas."

Joshua thinks that this next topic might be a bit...hot. "Next i'm going to talk about breeding and egg groups. If you would like to skip this last one for any reason, please tell me." 
Now that he raise that one topic, Veera and Shia began feeling very uncomfortable and worried.

Khaun notices the slight distress Veera is in. 
"If you wish to excuse yourself from the room for the moment, you may do so." He says. "I can always fill you in on what he said later on."

"If...if that's okay." With that Veera leaves the room for the moment, just going somewhere she can't hear what is about to be spoken about. 
Shia is still feeling very uneasy though, this is starting to make him think 'what if i got her pregnant'? 
Joshua sees that she left, must have been because of that warning so he is glad to have mentioned it. "Anyone else?"

"Well, I'm certainly not going." Loona says.

He can see that Spark is okay with having this talk, so seems to be Shia, so he proceeds with it. "Now Pokémons can breed, species is not a factor that stands in the way. A whale can get pregnant by a cat. So there are egg groups, that is what defines if Pokemons can interbreed but there is one exception among them, it is possible for pokemon to be part of more than one than egg group. These groups are: Monster, Water 1/2/3, bug, flying, field, fairy, grass, human-like, mineral, amorphous and Dragon. Now there are a two more egg groups that differentiate themselves, first is: Gender Unknown, Pokemon that do not have conventional gender and can not breed. And second, Ditto, Ditto is a species that can turn into any other pokemon, they can also breed almost all other pokemon."

"That is all manner of crazy." Eliumi saids in shock.
"Good thing we're recording all of this, otherwise I'd have to ask you to repeat all that." Khaun says as he holds his temples.
"Ditto was that thing that transformed into me, correct?" Nine recalls. "Or at least, attempted to."
"Yeah, that was an... interesting attempt." Eilumi laughs. "Though that does make me wonder... where exactly do we non-pokemon fit in that?"
Loona gives him a funny look.
"Er, for scientitic reasons, of course." EIlumi quickly puts his hands up and waves them.
"Riiiiiiggghhhttt" Loona says as she smiles and rolls her eyes.

"I have not seen a pokemon breed with species from other worlds." He stated. "I do have records of pokemons born from breeding between them and my own species but...the result is just a pokemon with deficiencies."
 Shia slowly raises a trembling paw. "H-hey...i have a questions..." 
Joshua looks to him. "Yes?" 
"W...what is...my egg group?" He is getting visibly more nervous the further he asks. 
The human does know the answer for that. "It is field."

"Hmmm... that's... something I'll have to be aware of." Eilumi said. "Er, we, I mean. We." He quickly corrected himself.

"And Veera's...?" He is very afraid as to what the answer might be. 
Joshua already see where this is going. He stared down the Shinx for a few moments before giving an answer. ".......Field." 
That...was what he was afraid of, he begins thinking what this would mean, if he got her pregnant with that...what if it makes it even harder for her to forgive him? 
Seeing Shia like this gives Sparks plenty of concern. He isn't sure if he should try holding his friend, it looks like he is going to collapse. "Shia? You okay...?"

Loona looks on rather concerned, as do the rest. 
Khaun makes a note to himself to run a pregnancy test on Veera afterwords.

"I...I got her pregnant, didn't i?" He is pretty much assuming the worst already.

"We don't know that... yet." Khaun says in response.

Shia is still thinking about it, and he would have been still deep in though until... 
"Shia." Joshua called out to him to snap him out of it. 
"This is not the time to be worrying about this." "R-right..." He shyly settles down.

"Thanks, Josh." Eilumi whispers. 
"Anyway, we'll have to resolve that issue later." Khaun says. "At any rate, continue."

The human waited a moment to be sure everything was in silence before continuing. "When two pokemon breed, the resulting offspring inherits things from their progenitors, capabilities is one of them, and one move that they would not be able to get otherwise. Also the species of the offspring is always the same as the mother's."

"I see." Eilumi says. "Is there any information you have on hand on how pokemon raise their young once the egg is hatched?"

"Given that this is a sentient species, the way pokemon can raise their children can vary." He said. "Also you already know that all pokemon lay eggs?"

"All of them? Huh, that's surprising. We Avali lay eggs. But I thought mammals had live births." Khaun replies.

He nods. "And that concludes the basics.......are you fine with moving to something more advanced now?"

"Alright then, i will be talking about something else that every pokemon has, but they vary from pokemon species, these are called Statistics. They are the embodiment of a Pokemon's physical capabilities put in a format that can be measured." 

"Okay, with you so far" Eilumi says.

Khaun goes and tells Veera that she can come back in now.

Since it is safe to come back now, the Jolteon does so, and sits back down to hear what Joshua has to say. "There are six of them: stamina, attack, defense, special attack, special defense and speed."

"He's talking about statistics now." Khaun whispers to Veera, to help her catch up.

She nods to him and listens. 
"I will now go over what each of them means. Stamina determines how much punishment a pokemon can take before fainting. Attack might sound self explanatory, but it only covers the physical capacity to deal damage. Defense measures how much damage can get mitigated by attacks. Special attack/defense are similar to their normal counterparts, but they are more tied to the Pokémon's nature to wield moves that are...say, energy based. Finally, Speed is self explanatory." 
"Wait..." The Pikachu raised a paw, he had a question to voice. "Then...if you are saying that we have 'defenses' and such, how does iron kill us so easily?" 
"Iron...doesn't appear to care about any of that." 

"I would offer a hypothesis." Nine attempts to answer Spark. "Perhaps it's because Iron is a foreign element of some sort? Our own carbon steel and aerogel weapons seem to have the same effects from what we've seen."
"Though then again, we haven't had a very large test pool concerning that." Khaun adds in.
"... Right." Nine admits.

"Yes, this would lead me to believe that iron is following a law of it's own, and it is disturbing the very quick equilibrium that was in place." He knows that digging for the answers to questions such as these can get...complicated, and it can lead to a lot of trouble for all involved. "But...we can't really know for certain, the answer to this could be many possible ones, which makes it hard to single out a correct one..."

"At any rate, this speculation is getting us off track." Khaun tries to get everyone back on topic.

"Hhhmmmm...we are just about to finish with this." Joshua says. "Every pokemon species has a different total of statistics, some share the same total even. A higher total value means a strong species. Now unless the pokemon in question is specifically bread to be a perfect fighting machine, then you might see that different individuals even of the same species might have different specialties, but unless capitalized upon these are just minor."

"Sounds a bit like our own measurement system, but a bit different" Eilumi says.

He tilts his head to the side a little. "You also have a measurement system for that?"

"Sort of" Eilumi says. "It's not definitive. But it's... something."

"Right then. That pretty much concludes what I have wanted to tell you about pokémon." He says. "There are some other less important things i could tell you but i don't want to ruin all of the fun for you, you are explorers after all, right?"

Well, yes." Eilumi says. "Thank you for all of that. I've recorded it and will send the report to the council soon."

"Right..." Now he goes over to Pikachu. "Hey." 
The electric rodent looks up at the human, wondering what's up. "Yes...?" 
He offers him something, looks like it is all wrapped up in a piece of his cloak that he ripped off. "Here, you should thank Eilumi, Khaun and Nine, they are the ones who got it. and be careful with it."
 He looks at the thing that was given to him. "Oh...?" He unwraps it a little and sees that it is the thunderstone, then he wraps it back up. "Oh, I see i...I hope it wasn't too hard to get it."

"Nah, it wasn't hard at all. Just had to ask Luca. That's all." Eilumi says reassuringly. 
Loona gives him a concerned look.

And now that Joshua thinks about it...there is really nothing for him to do here, and it looks like Eilumi and his crew are about to set off into the unknown. "I suppose...that this is time for the goodbye now. i-" His hands curl a little, he felt some will to fight just now, this...this is not what he wants, they are his friends, he will see them again and he will fight whatever gets in the way, be it the passing of the time or the distance that is going to separate them. "No...just a bye." 
Pikachu was starting to get sad, he was seeing this coming, the goodbye...then he perked up when Joshua just said that this doesn't have to be the case. "Huh...? You...you will come back?" He sounds hopeful. 
"Well, it won't be tomorrow...or in a long time in fact, this might be a lot to ask but...can you not forget about me within two centuries or so?" 
"O-oh...i..." He sounds a bit uncertain, that sounds like a really really long time...

"Don't worry, once you get your nanites, a century will not seem like that long." Eilumi reassures him.

"Don't worry, I won't forget you either, Spark." 
Trying to fight back some tears, the Pikachu nods. "O-okay..." 
Joshua would like to try saying something to make him feel better but he is not sure what, but he tries. "Don't worry, you got this-" He feels something grab at his leg. 
Turns out it's spark, the pikachu is hugging his leg as tightly as he can. 
"..." Maybe words are not what he needs. Joshua proceeds to pick up Spark to hug him against his chest.

"Awww...." Loona says to herself as she watches Josh hug Spark. 
The others just watch with smiles on their faces.

When the hugging was done, Joshua put Spark back down. "Now I'm not sure if opening my path home in here is alright, it looks too cramped. Maybe the airlock would be an option."

"Uhhh... are you sure about that? That might be really dangerous. especially if something goes wrong." Eilumi replied. "I could just take you back to the planet and let you do that."

He nods. "Yes it would indeed be safer. If you are fine with one last trip to the surface of the planet I suppose we could do that."

"Alright. I don't think we'll need the shuttle for this since we're not going anywhere in particular." Eilumi grabs onto Josh. "Anything more to say to everyone? This is the last chance you'll get."

Anything else he would like to say to everyone? "Hmmm...well i already talked with Spark, but there is just something that i would like to express to you and your Crew, Eilumi. Requesting you come with me is pretty selfish...and dangerous. But i really wish there was a way i could truly repay you everything you have shown me."

"The same here, sadly. Perhaps we'll take you up on that offer if we ever come across you again. Or another of our people will." Eilumi is already grabbed onto Josh. "Well, if there is nothing else. Hang on, I'm going to teleport you back to the planet."

Joshua gives a last wave to everyone present, Spark, Shia and Veera waved back to him.

"Alright. Here we go." Eilumi says. As soon as he says this, both he and Josh vanish in a flash of light, and the familiar feeling of the sands fill their feet. They are somewhere outside of sandstone's gate, though not close enough for anyone to really notice them. "I trust you have your own way back to... wherever you came from?" Eilumi asks.

"Yes, of course." He looks around, seeing that this place might be far off and safe enough. "This is good enough." He places both hands under his cloak, or what's left of it, his fingers press two buttons on both sides of his belt. 
Something begins forming in the air nearby, it looks like a vertical crack forming in mid-air, it almost looks like some form of slit and it's glowing blue and emanating visible waves around it.

"If I happen to see others of your kind again, is there something I can use to ask about you? like, does your ship get an Identification or anything of the sort?

"Just ask for the Ghost Bear Pack." Eilumi says. "They should be able to look it up on the nexus. "

"Alright then i will remember that." He stepped towards that glowing crack formed in the air and gave it a punch, it wasn't a particularly strong one but it made it react. The crack broke into a sort of glowing blue wormhole with wireframe-like texture, more cracks formed in the air originating from it.

"Alrighty, i will be going now. Be sure that you and the others are still alive in the future so we can meet again okay?"

"We will definitely try to be." Eilumi chuckled as he waved goodbye.

Joshua waved to Eilumi before jumping into that wormhole and disappearing into the unknown, it then disappeared soon afterwards.

"Goodbye... Josh." Eilumi says to himself, then likewise vanishes in a flash of light as he reappears back on the ship. He makes his way back to where everyone previously was, wondering if they're still there.

The one that is still around there is Veera. "So...that's all of that done right? Nothing else to go doing back there?" She asks.

"Yeah..." Eilumi says to her. 
But as long as she's still here... "Sooo, I haven't personally talked to you yet. I know Khaun has, quite extensively, but not me..." He looks for a topic to start off on. 
"... How're you?" Not the best topic starter, but it'll have to do.

"I'm feeling very well right now, wondering where things will go for us from here." She smiles. "Would you be okay with helping me understand what I can do with my nanites? I got them from Khaun not too long ago."

"But of course." Eilumi says as he takes her paws in his claws with a smile. "You need but to ask any of us."

"Okay so...what kind of thing can I do with the nanites? And how do I do them? Is it just like using moves?"

"Well..." He thinks for a moment. "Actually, maybe we should go find Loona. That way, I can instruct you both at the same time. She had her nanites put in recently too. I'll go call her, and Khaun." 
Part of him had hoped to get to know her more personally like this, but... plenty of time for that later.

She nods. "Alright then, will wait here."

"Actually, let me show you one thing you can do with it. As it relates to this..." 
Suddenly, a message pops up in front of Veera in the upper-center edge. There is a picture of Eliumi's head on it, with text. 
"!! Attention: Will Veera, Loona, and Khaun please report to the bridge. !!"

Veera reads the message, and looking at how Eulimi did it, it would appear that he didn't do anything? "Oh, I see words in my eyes." She says. She then moved her head around a little just to see if what's written would stay there.

"Yes, that's the DM system." Eilumi explains. "It will go away on its own in a few seconds... there it goes." 
It vanishes as suddenly as it appeared. 
"If you want to recall it again, just think the thought that you want to see it again. To send something, just imagine in your head what you want to type out, to whom you want to send it to, and then think 'send'." 
Several more messages appear in front of them. 
Khaun: Oh hey captain, welcome back. Alright, heading to bridge now. 
Loona: Aww, but I was waiting for you back down by the holodeck. 
Eilumi: This comes first. Gotta teach you two how to use your Nanites. 
Loona: But I already know how to use the DM system. 
Eilumi: Well, Veera doesn't. 
Khaun: Plus I'm sure there's more to cover. 
Loona: Oh alright. Comming up. 

"Let me try it then." Veera then begins to do what he instructed, thinking to try and use her nanites to write a message. 
Veera: Hey?

Khaun: Hello Veera! Looks like you figured it out. 
At that moment, Khaun walks onto the bridge. "Alright, I'm here." He says. "Aaaand so am I." Loona says as she arrives.

Veera looks to Khaun and nods. "Yeah, this wasn't too hard. I wonder if this is how psychic types feel, talking with each one from far away."

"More than likely." Khaun replies back. 
"Okay, now that we're here... I guess it's time to teach you guys hostly how to use your Nanites, Neural Jack, and what exactly they do." Eilumi announces. The door closes behind him. 
"First off, most of it is passive." Khaun tells everyone. "Disease protection, anti-aging, environmental protections, that sort of thing. And by anti-aging, yes, this means that you'll live for at least twenty times as long as your natural lifetimes. And that's a very low estimate." 
"But we're not really here to talk about that." Eilumi said. "We're here to talk about the more active stuff. Now, Loona is more familiar with some of these, as she's been training in the holodeck with the suit, which has options that simulate the HUD and Tech options of the nanites. Some of these we may need to go to the Holodeck to show you in regards to the later... or find some planet that doesn't have a lot of sentient life so we can practice this. But for the moment, we'll concentrate on the more basic stuff." 
For the next hour or so, they instruct Veera and, to the lesser extent, Loona, on how exactly they work, and how to do things like operate the doors and the various machines. They are taught how to call the dropship to their location, they already know how to message, they are taught about the techs and how to equip them. But as they said, they'd need to actually go to a planet or go in the sims in order to test them out personally.
 "Also speaking of operating vehicles, I think it's high time we left this planet for good." Eilumi says. He walks over to the intercom system, and speaks into it. 
"ATTENTION! This is your captain speaking. We are making final preparations to leave orbit. I repeat, we will leave this planet for good in a few minutes! If there is any sort of final thing anyone has to do on this planet before we leave, Now is the time to tell us, or Nine. Because you will not get this opportunity again. We will be GONE for good."

The Jolteon listened to everything he had to say about the nanites, opening doors and operating machines with thoughts...sounds nice. Not having to worry about getting sick sounds very good too. When he announces that they are going to leave soon, she decides to have a last look at her old home from the bridge. "So we are leaving, hmmm...I'm feeling a lot of things right now." 
Meanwhile in another part of the ship, Spark and Shia also heard that announcement and decided to go to a window to look at the planet and reminisce about the old lives they are leaving behind.

"What kind of things?" Khaun asks her. 
"Well, I for one am really looking forward to leaving this planet behind." 
Loona says. "Good riddance." 
In another part of the ship, Nine finds Spark and Shia. "Well, you heard the captain. Is there any last wishes or unfinished business before we leave?" Nine asks. "This is the last chance you'll get to voice them."

"I'm glad about that too, Loona." She keeps gazing at the planet. "It's just...still hard to believe we had this stroke of luck, we are all together again, going for a better life...........I am not dreaming, i am? I'm not going to wake up back in Sandstone, right?" 
Spark shakes his head. "Not really, I got my last wish done thanks to you guys." 
"And I...honestly rather not go back there." Shia says.

"Well, if this is a dream, I hope I'm just hoping I'm comatose so I don't wake up." Loona says. 
"Want me to spank you to see if you're dreaming?" Eilumi jokes. 
"... Later." Loona says under her breath. 
Nine: That's a 'no' from Spark and Shia. 
"Right then." Eilumi says as he goes over to the controls and sits down. "Alright. Here. We. Go." 
The ship begins to turn, the planet fading from view, the moon is in view. Suddenly, the stars turn into lines as the ship speeds off at speeds faster than light.

From where they are, Spark, Veera and Shia watch in awe and surprise as they see the stars turn into lines from how fast the ship is flying.